Burst Like A Bubble
by sorrydontgotacoolusername
Summary: Annabeth has to go to a family reunion on her stepmom's side, and everyone is awful to her. However, they act much nicer when Percy shows up. All of those family members like him because he is really famous for saving a lot of kids during a shooting. For an anon prompt on Tumblr. Cover image by Viria.


**For anon.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. That would be Rick Riordan.**

* * *

To the average person, it was just a regular Saturday morning in an average San Francisco Fall. Unfortunately, Annabeth Chase was not average, and it was not a regular Saturday. Her father and stepmother were making her go to her stepmother's family reunion. This blackened, withered branch of her mortal family tree had always treated her terribly. Like the rest of her family behaved before she ran away, her stepmother's side of the family never really included her in the family. They found her to be the puzzle piece that didn't quite fit, the constant reminder of their imperfect family.

Annabeth thought she would have been just fine staying home by herself, but her parents were having none of that. The only bright side was that Percy was going to come with her. Or so she thought. As he didn't fly, he should have shadow traveled over with Mrs. O'Leary an hour ago. Well, Annabeth knew she shouldn't have been surprised – Percy was always late, it was just who he was.

"Annabeth, dear, it's time to go!" Annabeth's stepmother reminded her stepdaughter, with just a touch of impatience. Even though the two had made their peace years ago, the endearment left Annabeth feeling slightly surprised. Looking around for Percy one more time, and giving a sigh of disappointment when she didn't see him, Annabeth smoothed out her sundress, stepped off their front porch, and got into the car.

Unfortunately for Annabeth, the car ride was short, as she needed all the time to brace herself as she could get.

Far too quickly, Annabeth's brothers, father, and stepmother had launched themselves out of the car to greet their family. Slowly, Annabeth slid out of the car, trying not to get noticed by her stepfamily. She was just able to make it to the hotel pool deck when they noticed her. She wasn't happy to greet them, but she did anyway. Turning to face her stepfamily, Annabeth forced out a smile, knowing that their attempts at verbal attacks would begin as soon as they said hello.

Annabeth wasn't wrong. After receiving loose hugs from her over perfumed step aunts, the group dispersed a bit, and the questioning began.

"So Annabeth hasn't been living here, has she?" Aunt Francine asked, not really to the girl in question. Annabeth's father began to answer, but saw Annabeth's stormy expression and stopped.

"No, actually, I've been living in New York City," Annabeth responded with the sickly-sweetest smile she could muster.

"With your… mother?" Francine's husband Greg asked with a grimace. While Fredrick Chase's wife's family had never been told that Annabeth's mother was really Athena, the Greek goddess, they did know that she was in New York.

"No, actually, I-" Annabeth started to respond, but she got cut off by her aunt.

"Oh, good. That woman is bad news," Francine declared, not seeming to care if Annabeth heard her insults. "Who knows what Fredrick ever saw in her! Does your mother even have a job?" If Francine had seen the looks on her brother-in-law's and step niece's faces during her mini rant, she probably would have known to shut her mouth.

"Athena is a very intelligent woman. She was also able to get Annabeth a very prestigious architecture … internship," Fredrick coolly replied to Francine's words, stumbling a bit on the so-called internship. It wasn't like he could tell them that his daughter was the Official Architect of Olympus. All he got in return was an eye roll.

Walking away from Bobby, Matthew, and the other cousins, Annabeth saw her other step aunt and uncle stroll towards the adults. They were quick to enter the conversation, also not having much nice to say to their niece. "So Annabeth," Uncle Henry started. "How's school going? What grade are you in, again?"

"I'm a senior. School is fine," Annabeth started, a touch of pride obvious on her face, if only for a moment.

"Oh, Annabeth, sweetie, we know about the ADHD and Dyslexia. You don't have to be embarrassed of how hard school must be." Aunt Barb interjected.

Annabeth frowned, very fed up with the family, and extremely irked at Percy for being so late. "Well, school can get hard – " her step aunts and uncles made some noises at that, " – but I work very hard. I am an honors student, actually. I'm in mostly advanced classes." Annabeth was disgusted at the poorly concealed looks of surprise on these adults' faces.

The family reunion didn't really go uphill for quite some time. Annabeth was amazed at just how bad demigod luck could get. Annabeth had been trying to figure out a way to escape from the adults when her step cousin Alex meandered over. He had just gotten out of the pool, still shirtless and was dripping wet. Just a year older than her, Alex had always flirted with Annabeth, ignoring her disinterest.

"Annie! Long time, no see!" The pig exclaimed, throwing an arm around a very disgruntled daughter of Athena.

"Hi," Annabeth replied hotly, wriggling out of his grasp.

"Let's go … catch up," he breathed in her ear, wiggling his eyebrows. Annabeth scoffed, but Alex didn't get deterred.

Seeing her discomfort, Fredrick interjected, "Annabeth, didn't you say Percy was going to be here?" Oh, Annabeth was glad that she and her father made up. She went to give him the affirmative, but was cut off.

"Who's Percy?" Alex asked, narrowing his eyes.

"My boyfriend, actually." Annabeth smirked. Not that it happened often, but when she saw her aunts and uncles, they always suggested she try to find a boyfriend.

"Really, Annabeth? We've never heard of this boyfriend," Barb snidely cut back in. "Tell us about him."

"He has black hair and green eyes; he goes to my camp," Annabeth paused as the aunts, uncles, and cousin expressed disdain. For whatever reason, they didn't like Annabeth's sleep away camp. "He's a great swimmer. He's really nice. What else do you want to know about him?" As Annabeth started describing Percy, Booby, Matthew, and the rest of the cousins came out of the pool, ready for lunch.

A true romantic at heart, fifteen-year-old Abby asked, "How did you guys meet?"

However, the adults were not as accepting of whatever Annabeth had to say as their children were. "Oh, Abby, Annabeth doesn't really –" Francine started, but got cut off so Henry could holler at an uninvited guest.

"Hey kid! This is a private party. I'm going to have to ask you to leave the pool deck." Turning around to see who had just arrived, Annabeth was met with the sight of Percy pulling down his hood.

"Actually, Sir, I'm supposed to be here," Percy replied before running to meet Annabeth half way in a hug. Both of them ignored the looks of surprise on Annabeth's stepfamily's faces.

"What took you so long?" Annabeth hissed.

"Pack of Telekhines. I'm sorry, Wise Girl." Annabeth glared for a moment before relenting, and reached up to give Percy a kiss. "So you're going to introduce me to your mortal family now?" Annabeth took his hand, and begrudgingly led him to those who had been questioning his existence just moments ago.

"Percy, this is Aunt Francine, Uncle Greg, Aunt Barb, Uncle Henry, Alex, and Abby. This is Percy Jackson, my boyfriend." Annabeth quickly introduced, giving Francine a very pointed look.

"Percy! So good to see you!" Fredrick exclaimed, shaking hands with the latecomer.

"You too, Sir. Thank you for inviting me" Percy replied, stepping back into his place by Annabeth's side.

"Fredrick, you know this boy?" Greg asked, turning the word _boy_ into an insult.

"Of course! He and Annabeth have known each other for quite some time now," Fredrick tried his best to ignore the acid in his brother-in-law's tone.

When Barb spoke up, Annabeth was shocked at the kind tone she used. "Percy, your name is? Have I ever seen you before? You look familiar."

Annabeth let out a chuckle at this. They would never tell the family that he had been the subject of a nationwide manhunt! "Oh, it's possible. I travel a lot," Percy responded, proud of himself for coming up with that half-truth.

Greg, who had his phone out, made a noise of exclamation when he found something. Evidently, he had looked Percy up. "You're the boy who saved all those kids from a school shooting a couple months ago."

"Yeah, that was me," Percy blushed, ever the modest one. Annabeth rolled her eyes as her aunts, uncles, and cousins gasped collectively. Their levels of bullshit never ceased to amaze her.

Eyes wide, Abby asked, "How'd you do it?"

As Percy launched into the story of how he saved all those elementary schoolers, Annabeth began to wander away. She was proud of Percy, of course, but she had heard this story before, and she needed a moment to collect her thoughts. As long as these people had been her family, they disregarded all of her accomplishments and shot down all of her thoughts. They weren't like that with anyone else, clearly. Why was she so worthy of their hate? Lost in her own mind, she was startled when Abby caught up with her.

"You're really lucky, you know," Abby started. Seeing Annabeth's questioning look, she pressed on. "Percy? He seems really great. I think he's in love with you." The two girls turned around to look at the boy in question. Sensing their gazes, he looked at Annabeth, sending her his signature smirk.

"Yeah, I think so too," Annabeth told her younger cousin as they started to go back to the parents, Alex, and Percy. As soon as Annabeth looped her hand into her boyfriend's, the other adults turned to her.

"Annabeth, why didn't you tell us about Percy sooner?" Francine inquired; with the least amount of venom Annabeth had ever heard this aunt direct to her. Blowing hard out her nostrils, Annabeth counted to three before responding.

"It never came up," Was all Annabeth could calmly say. The conversation continued for a while before Annabeth quietly excused herself, and dragged Percy away. He started to protest, but soon saw the look on her face and decided to just hold her for a minute. "I'm glad you came," Annabeth mumbled into Percy's shirt.

Grinning, Percy pulled away so he could look at Annabeth. "Yeah, I know you'd do the same for me. We save each other. This just happened to be my turn to save you," He stopped to give his girlfriend a kiss. "So what do you say we get out of here?"

"I thought you'd never ask," She smirked, before taking his hand and pulling him out the pool gates.


End file.
